Absolutely cannot get even pitch on bass reso

Member

I'm not a tuning pro by any means but I rarely have trouble with any drum I come across. I've tried several different reso heads (new, old, ported, not ported, coated, clear, etc), tuning with and without the batter head on, rotating the hoop, checking the edges... Everything. No matter what I do I always have two opposing lugs (8 lugs total so let's say 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock for example) that are just flat and dead. I absolutely cannot tweak them to go in tune with the rest of the lugs. Even if I crank them to severely raise the pitch, they never go in tune with the other lugs nor ever increase the sustain or ring... Just a slight higher pitched dead tone. I really don't know what to do. I've spent so many hours (and so much money... Seriously, more on heads then my actual drums at this point) for this issue to never go away. Any suggestions besides throwing the damn thing out my window and turning it into a backyard fire ring?

As a whole I can get the drum to sound good 'enough' but for us is 'enough' ever actually enough? It has some errant overtones (I don't do the whole pillow or laundry thing) that I've always been able to tune out of any other kick I've owned (16"-28"). If I was just playing at home I wouldn't worry about it but this is my live rig and is frequently mic'ed as well as I have been putting off recording two tracks with my band because of this issue. To the ear no one would know but the mic's always do. Edges and shell look fine, even with a level. I have noticed this problem has been getting worse and worse since I added an old school Gibraltar bass drum hoop spike attachment to prevent creeping (the legs frankly suck, the drum bounces around and creeps like crazy. This fixed that issue) so I wonder if it is slowly putting the hoop out of round especially since it's always opposing lugs by never the same two lugs.

When I first got this drum I was able to get a great sound from it but it's getting worse and worse, even with brand new heads. Putting aside the recent issues I've had, it's a surprisingly versatile drum especially with a mic but only based off your tuning and head selection. Don't expect it to be a 'set it and forget it' drum you could grab for any gig but you absolutely can set it up to work for any style of music... But only one style/sound at a time.

Platinum Member

You can try taping a cotton ball to the inside of the reso. No one will see it, and the drum will still retain any boominess it has. It might not fix the tuning problem, but it will calm the head down. And no laundry in the drum!

Platinum Member

Sounds like something is torquing the front end of shell or rim-if it's not the head, rims, and drum appears level and round. You mentioned the bass drum hoop spike attachment-take it off and see if still problem. It's odd that it's never the same two opposing lugs-so it isn't something permanent but changes-which makes me think it's the tightening of hoop attachment-if taking it off fixes the problem maybe try gluing the stop in place with an industrial strength glue.

Member

Thanks for the replies everyone! I too really think it's a hoop issue, only having 8 lugs/claws probably doesn't help much either as it's a decent distance between each one. I'm going to have to take it apart and really check the hoop and shell again. As was suggested I'll try swapping the batter and reso hoops as well as taking the hoop spikes off to see.

Gold Member

Your thread reminded me of the 7"X20" bass drum that I bought several years ago. I haven't played around with it for a while now, but I've always been impressed with how BIG that sucker sounds. I pay no attention whatsoever to equal tension on all the lugs, and I don't worry about wrinkles in a bass drum at all. I just fiddle with the tensioning until it sounds good - on this drum and on my 22" drums, as well.

(Somebody made this drum from a cut-down shell that looks like all maple. It has Pacific snare drum lugs, metal hoops, Gibraltar spurs, Gretsch tom mount, and Evans heads. Whoever made it did a very nice job with it, and greatly surprised me with its ability to produce such a huge sound from such a short drum. I need to pull it back out of storage and see what else it can do.)

Member

Your thread reminded me of the 7"X20" bass drum that I bought several years ago. I haven't played around with it for a while now, but I've always been impressed with how BIG that sucker sounds. I pay no attention whatsoever to equal tension on all the lugs, and I don't worry about wrinkles in a bass drum at all. I just fiddle with the tensioning until it sounds good - on this drum and on my 22" drums, as well.

(Somebody made this drum from a cut-down shell that looks like all maple. It has Pacific snare drum lugs, metal hoops, Gibraltar spurs, Gretsch tom mount, and Evans heads. Whoever made it did a very nice job with it, and greatly surprised me with its ability to produce such a huge sound from such a short drum. I need to pull it back out of storage and see what else it can do.)

Platinum Member

Well you should tell them that the reso head was dead on your 22 in and that drum heads don't last forever. Now the last part is absolutely true and the former part is subjective so "overall" it works. Since he needs to make a new reso head with logo-tell to make it a 26 in or compromise and bring out the 24 in kick LOL. Good grief-I did it again and posted on wrong thread. I've got to invent a pill to fix this crap LOL.

Platinum Member

I put something inside like a towel or tshirt, really kills the ugly overtones. It's a bass drum too, so when I play live they are going to boost the sub frequencys and the highs for attack and scoop out all that mid anyways. I would just go my make snare and toms sound twice as good with that spare time .

I'd do the "light test" and make sure your edges are truely good. check the hoops too. sounds like something off. I have a rim on my 10 inch tom that makes that thing SUPER hard to tune, the rest of the kit is perfect to tune. Some drums are just a pain.

Member

I put something inside like a towel or tshirt, really kills the ugly overtones. It's a bass drum too, so when I play live they are going to boost the sub frequencys and the highs for attack and scoop out all that mid anyways. I would just go my make snare and toms sound twice as good with that spare time .

I'd do the "light test" and make sure your edges are truely good. check the hoops too. sounds like something off. I have a rim on my 10 inch tom that makes that thing SUPER hard to tune, the rest of the kit is perfect to tune. Some drums are just a pain.

Well said, the snare on that kit is the easiest drum I've ever tuned: finger tighten batter and reso, 1.5 turns on each lug of the reso in a star pattern, 1 turn on each lug of the batter in a star pattern, wires looser or tighter to taste. Done. Any head and wire combo, any style of music I've thrown at it.

Member

Sometimes but not all the time. When I practice at home or at band rehearsals I play pretty light. When playing live I start off pretty light but I drive a 9-12 piece rock band and when those guys'n'gals get a few drinks in them they get really loud so I have to keep up. The reason for the hoop spikes and the creeping I spoke of is due to the drum bouncing around when played, watch video reviews (not Tama's ad video) about the club jam mini and you'll notice every time the bass drum is bouncing around which causes it to walk. I've been playing almost 20 years and have owned atleast 8 different bass drums in that time and never had this bouncing/walking/creeping issue before.

Member

No, I didn't get rid of them because of the issue/issues I spoke about in this thread and it wasn't a rash decision where I up and off'ed a kit in a few days. I was on the fence about this for some time, had a slew of other issues with these drums over the last few months, and at the exact same time I noticed the kit I was looking at was on sale I also was given a good offer on these drums.

Gold Member

No, I'm afraid not. I pulled it out yesterday after posting about it. It has a black wrap, Pacific snare drum lugs, and the interior is clear maple.

After messing around with it some yesterday, I've decided to re-wrap it in White Marine Pearl to match my new Slingerland kit. I think that I might wait until Monday to strip the drum of all of its hardware, remove the black wrap, and prepare the shell for the rewrap. Later in this post I'll show a picture of my rewrapped Slingerland kit that I intend to match.